And
he was spotted at the club's Melwood training base on Friday play
fighting with team-mates Kolo Toure and Steven Gerrard in the build-up
to Saturday's home clash with Aston Villa.

The Anfield side have maintained their
position near the top of the league courtesy of their star performer's
goals and he can add to his tally of 22 league strikes against Villa this weekend.

He will fancy his chances as Liverpool's opponents are 11th in the table. Nineteen of his goals this season have come against teams in the bottom half.

Suarez's striker partner Daniel Sturridge has also hit a rich vein of form at times this term, netting 12 league goals.

And boss Brendan Rodgers believes Sturridge could be world class if he maintains his progress.

'My opinion on Daniel has only been reinforced during the period I have worked with him,' said Rodgers of the player he signed for £12million from Chelsea a year ago.

All smiles: Rodgers enjoys a laugh and joke with his players at Melwood in the build-up to the clash with Villa

'Overall he has a wonderful opportunity in the next couple of years of being world class.

'He has every tool, every quality to be a world-class striker similar to Luis Suarez.

'We just need to get him on to the field on a regular basis and he gets a bit of luck in staying clear of injury and he can be that for sure.'

Last weekend Sturridge marked his return to action after a seven-week injury lay-off with a goal in the 5-3 win at Stoke which took his personal tally to 12 for the season.

That is still 10 behind the remarkable Suarez but Rodgers believes the spell the England international had on the sidelines means he can fully attack the second half of the campaign.

'This little period out through injury has refreshed him mentally as well and he comes back for the second half of the season,' he added.

'He made an immediate impact when he came on.

Captain's job: Suarez was also seen grappling with Steven Gerrard during the training session

'That was something which was very important for us as we had someone of that talent sat on the bench who could come on and change the nature of the game.'

Sturridge will be pushing for a start on Saturday at home to Aston Villa, which will be the first game at Anfield for principal owner John W Henry since he appointed Rodgers in the summer of 2012.

After a six-month adjustment period the team have been on the up ever since and Henry will be keen to witness the improvement himself as well as speaking to the manager about future plans.

'We have regular contact any way, this is nothing more than them coming over to look at the developments of the club,' said Rodgers.

'We'll go for a meal, talk about Liverpool and that will cover everything: transfers, where players are at in their development and the overall club.

Ready for action: Sturridge performs some tricks as the Reds prepare to maintain their place in the top four

'They have been brilliant from a personal level and hopefully they get their rewards over the next number of years.

'They took over a club a few years back which was in disarray in terms of ownership and stability and they were one of the main principal reasons I came to the club because of the vision they had.

'When you talk about leadership they define leadership.'

Liverpool's finances received a boost after they signed a multi-million pound global partnership deal with American firm Dunkin' Donuts.

'Off the pitch I think we bat right at the top of the league in terms of our commercial activity and our performances,' said managing director Ian Ayre.

'In the modern game we talk about financial fair play and the ability to operate in transfer markets and a big part of doing what we want to achieve here is generating revenue which supports what we do on the pitch.'

Five alive: Liverpool ran riot in their last league outing against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium